Related papers: Radioactivities in Low- and Intermediate-Mass Star…
Most star formation in the Galaxy takes place in clusters, where the most massive members can affect the properties of other constituent solar systems. This paper considers how clusters influence star formation and forming planetary systems…
Now 50 years since the existence of the neutron star crust was proposed, we review the current understanding of the nuclear physics of the outer layers of accreting neutron stars. Nuclei produced during nuclear burning replace the nascent…
The disks of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) have emerged as rich environments for the production and capture of stars and the compact objects that they leave behind. These stars produce long Gamma-Ray Bursts (LGRBs) at their deaths, while…
We describe our first attempt at modelling nucleosynthesis in massive AGB stars which have undergone core carbon burning, the super-AGB stars. We fit a synthetic model to detailed stellar evolution models in the mass range 9<=M/Msun<=11.5…
Emission and absorption line observations of molecules in late-type stars are a vital component in our understanding of stellar evolution, dust formation and mass loss in these objects. The molecular composition of the gas in the…
Meteoritic evidence shows that the Solar system at birth contained significant quantities of short-lived radioisotopes (SLRs) such as 60Fe and 26Al (with half-lives of 2.6 and 0.7 Myr respectively) produced in supernova explosions and in…
Nuclear reactions generate energy in nuclear reactors, in stars, and are responsible for the existence of all elements heavier than hydrogen in the universe. Nuclear reactions denote reactions between nuclei, and between nuclei and other…
Barium stars are extrinsic Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars. They present the s-enhancement characteristic for AGB and post-AGB stars, but are in an earlier evolutionary stage (main sequence dwarfs, subgiants, red giants). They are…
The production of about half of the heavy elements found in nature is assigned to a specific astrophysical nucleosynthesis process: the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). Although this idea has been postulated more than six decades…
An attempt is made, probably for the first time, to understand the origin of the solar system in context with the evolution of the galaxy as a natural consequence of the birth of several generations of stellar clusters. The galaxy is…
Type I planetary nebulae (PNe) have high He/H and N/O ratios and are thought to be descendants of stars with initial masses of ~3-8Msun. These characteristics indicate that the progenitor stars experienced proton-capture nucleosynthesis at…
The disks of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) are expected to be populated by numerous stars, either formed in the outer regions of the disk via gravitational instability, or captured from the nearby nuclear star cluster. Regardless of their…
The oldest stars hide information about the chemical evolution of the early universe. In this contect new models of the AGB stellar evolution phase at very low and zero metallicity are presented. Due to the deficiency or absence of CNO…
The ejecta of the first probably very massive stars polluted the Big Bang primordial element mix with the first heavier elements. The resulting ultra metal-poor abundance distribution provided the initial conditions for the second stars of…
There are several key open questions as to the nature and origin of AGN including: 1) what initiates the active phase, 2) the duration of the active phase, and 3) the effect of the AGN on the host galaxy. Critical new insights to these can…
In past decades a lot of progress has been made towards understanding the main s-process component that takes place in thermally pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars. During this process about half of the heavy elements, mainly…
Radioactive nuclei with lifetimes on the order of millions of years can reveal the formation history of the Sun and active nucleosynthesis occurring at the time and place of its birth. Among such nuclei whose decay signatures are found in…
People usually smile when astrophysicists assert that we are sons of the stars, but human life confirms this sentence: about 65% of the mass of our body is made up of oxygen, carbon occurs in all organic life and is the basis of organic…
(abridge version) The evolution of population III stars (Z=0) is followed from the pre-main sequence phase up to the AGB phase for intermediate-mass stars and up to C ignition in more massive stars...We find that, thanks to the development…
High quality infrared spectra of active galaxies including the stellar absorption features of Si at 1.59 um, CO(6,3) at 1.62 um, and CO(2,0) at 2.29 um are used to measure the stellar mass to light ratio at 1.65 um (M_H/L) and investigate…